Admin

The Station C team is thrilled to announce that we will continue to offer an amazing coworking space in bigger and more beautiful location in the heart of the Mile End.

Last December, we made some tough decisions concerning Station C and we opted to search for a new partner. Following the announcement, we received innumerable notes of thanks, encouragement and support. We were touched and delighted to see how many people loved Station C in Montreal and abroad.

After evaluating our options, Jonathan, Yves and Dan happily accepted to sell a portion of the Station C business to Steve Laprise, Editor and owner of the Lien MULTIMEDIA, Qui fait Quoi, CONVERGENCE magazine and newMEDIAcanada.ca. Steve is now the majority shareholder Station C. His team will reinvigorate Station C, ensuring its long term success. Dan will remain president and take an advisory role while Jonathan will help ensure a smooth transition. Though Dan and Jonathan will be less involved in the daily management of the space, they will constantly be searching for ways to help Steve improve Station C for all its members. Both Jon and Yves will remain members of Station C.

The move is scheduled for February 28th and we will be back up and running on Monday, March 4 and our new, amazing, location.

The new location is at 5605 Avenue de Gaspé, suite 204 (just above St. Viateur). Over 5 years of managing a coworking space has taught us a lot and we poured our experience and our members’ recommendations into the design of the new space!

Here are just a few of the improvements we’ve made to Station C.

One additional meeting room for a total of 3 rooms.

Meeting rooms are soundproofed, air conditioned and ventilated with large windows to let in tons of natural light.

Station C first opened its door to coworking members almost 5 years ago. Patrick Tanguay and I came up with the idea of offering a shared workspace in Montreal that fosters collaboration, community, and serendipity at a time when we were both working from cafes, our apartments or our clients offices. From the beginning we knew the endeavour would never be, for us, a money-making venture. We were both busy with our freelance gigs and we knew that starting a coworking space would mean additional responsibilities and financial obligations. Though well aware of the risks involved, we thought we would get much more out of the experience, and we did. We met interesting people and made a tone of new friends. I am proud to say that Station C has been the home of more then 100 freelancers and a dozen businesses. We’ve hosted more the 50 meet-ups, fostered three start-ups and hosted a few awesome parties.

As many of you know, Pat decided to move on in 2011. Jonathan and Yves joined me to help manage Station C. It was a great fit. They had been part of the Station C community almost since the beginning. They too had full-time jobs but they took the added responsibilities because they wanted to keep Station C alive.

In the past couple of month, membership has dropped somewhat. This is not unusual in the winter months, but to save on costs, we nonetheless decided to take over Manon’s responsibilities. Since then, I also accepted a full-time job, which forces me to work from another location. Jon and Yves are still busy with their own full-time jobs. Together we just don’t have time to dedicate to recruiting new members to keep the place sustainable.

Our lease is coming to an end on February 28th and in late 2012 we decided not to renew because of all that is involved in keeping the place running. That being said we want to keep Station C alive, which is why we are actively working to find someone to take over Station C and run it from a new location in the Mile End. We hope that our remaining members will continue to be part of the new incarnation of Station C.

We are currently in discussions with one prospective buyer, but it is too soon to tell how things will unfold. We believe that with renewed and committed management, Station-C could easily grow to meet its full potential as a sustainable coworking space. If any one of you or someone you know are interested in taking over Station C please get in touch with us. Meanwhile we will keep you posted any new developments. For now, rest assured that all members who have paid an extra month when they signed on will not be charged for the month of February. And please feel free to ask us if you have any questions.

Admin

Last week at Station C , friends and members got together after work to enjoy — under the guidance of our “apprentie sommelier,” Natacha Campeau — a pleasant (and socially lubricating) sampling of Scotch whisky. The selection: a Macallan 12, a silky smooth Johnny Walker Gold 18 years, a Glen Elgin 12 years, an 18-year Highland Park, a smoky 10-year Ardberg and a very smoky Lagavulin 16 years. Not bad for an evening’s work…

Be sure to join us on November 14th for our next educational cocktail gathering. Quebec brew will be the theme then

Admin

Simon Sweetman is a painter and illustrator from Toronto and based in Montreal. He has studied painting and drawing at Concordia since 2008 and was a student at the Etobicoke School for the Arts for 4 years prior to that.

His paintings focus on energy; with no plan from the outset, working mostly through intuition for the first half of the work, then polishing what mass is left. The work tends to straddle the border of abstraction and landscape, often incorporating elements of fantasy. While the work strives to avoid representing the real, it meticulously attempts to render light, shadow and form to create a physical (if impossible) space. As mentioned, the work is about energy, it attempts to create a sense of the epic: raw forces of nature in active collision (as in the explosions of Cataclysm) or otherwise pitted against one another (as the more passive relationship of decay present in Over an Age Long Past).

Simon Sweetman draws his main inspirations from English romanticists like Turner and Martin, but is heavily influenced by the world of sci-fi and fantasy illustration, with artists like James Gurney and Kinoku Y Craft informing the work on a similar -if not equal- level.

Admin

She studied at the University of British Columbia and completed a double major in Psychology and Visual Arts and attended L’ecole nationale superieure des beaux arts in Paris.

After graduating, she returned to Iran for two years. There she focused on painting and created a series drawing inspiration from from her observations people, mainly of her generation, their moods and psyche, society and everyday life in Tehran.

Beyond the limits of nationality and origin, however, her content is drawn from her mixed academic background leading to a focus on the layers and complexities of individuals and an appreciation for imperfections. After her two-year stay in Iran she returned to Canada, this time to Montreal, to seek her place in the flourishing art scene of this cultural capital.

She recently completed a degree in graphic design to expand her creative field and continues to paint as her primary passion and career choice. For a detailed list of exhibitions, interviews etc please refer to her blog at www.naghmehsharifi.blogspot.com